“Yesterday, our office became aware of the final independent report from Attorney General Letitia James’ office regarding Governor Andrew Cuomo’s conduct. As some of the Governor’s conduct described in the report occured in Westchester County, we have formally requested investigative materials obtained by the AG’s office. As this is an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further at this time,” state Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah on August 4.
Rocah released this statement after NBC news obtained a letter that Rocah wrote to the AG’s office requesting the infromation. NBC news also reported that “Specifically, Rocah said, she is looking for information tied to the alleged harassment and unwanted touching of a New York State trooper who was initially assigned to the governor’s detail at his Mount Kisco, New York, residence, which is in Westchester County.”
The new allegations made against Cuomo and confirmed by the AG-Independent investigation, are among the most damaging to the Governor. The trooper, who remains anonymous, was transfered to the Governor’s detail at the request of Cuomo after he “noticed her” at one event. The trooper did not have the requisite experience to join Cuomo’s security team but that requirement was overridden or overlooked.
The report includes details from testimony of the trooper and another trooper who witnessed Cuomo “running his hand across her stomach, from her belly button to her right hip, while she held a door open for him” and “running his finger down her back, from the top of her neck down her spine to the middle of her back” while on an elevator. He also is accused of “kissing her (and only her) on the cheek in front of another Trooper and asking to kiss her on another occasion, which she deflected,” among other things, the report said.
The belief is that some of these instances occurred at the New Castle home of Cuomo’s longterm partner Sandra Lee. Cuomo lived in the home with Lee and his daughters until they separated in 2019. Lee sold the home in 2020 for just under $2 Million.
After briefly meeting that trooper while she worked at a press conference of his in New York City in 2017, according to the report, Cuomo “played a role in having her hired for the PSU, even though she did not meet the minimum requirements for joining that unit at the time.”
The report found that a senior state police investigator told that trooper that the minimum requirement for troopers in the Protective Services Unit had been changed from three years on the job to two years, altered specifically for her.
The trooper began working in 2018 on the Governor’s detail at the New Castle home. In 2019 she began to world on his travel detail. The report states that inappropriate conduct between Cuomo and the trooper occurred at the New Castle home in both 2018 and 2019.
“I am writing to formally request any investigative materials, including interview transcripts, notes, or reports pertaining” to that state trooper, Rocah wrote to AG James. “Further, to the extent that any of the other complainants or witnesses reported conduct by the Governor that occurred in Westchester County, I request the same materials for each.”
